This sponsored post is produced in association with Adtile.
You want to watch that video on your mobile phone? First you have to watch an ad for 20 seconds. Maybe you want to surf the Web on your phone? Whoops, you accidently clicked on a tiny, almost invisible banner ad. Now suddenly the page you were looking at disappears. Something else is loading, but whatever it is, it’s taking too long to load.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1731121,"post_type":"sponsored","post_chan":"sponsored","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,enterprise,entrepreneur,marketing,mobile,","session":"A"}']This is what mobile advertising is like today. Most conventional mobile ads completely disrupt the user experience, forcing you to watch something you don’t want to watch or listen to something you don’t want to hear. It’s no wonder people are fed up with advertising, particularly on their mobile phones.
Yet for most companies, mobile ads are becoming a huge part of their communication strategies. Indeed, mobile ad spend will top $100B worldwide next year. But instead of recycling ads originally designed for the desktop, marketers might be better served if they tapped into the things smartphones can do that desktops cannot.
Understanding the hardware
Unlike desktops, smartphones carry within them a lot of innate intelligence. Today’s phones are packed with dozens of tiny sensors. These capture raw data about the user and all kinds of things going on in the outside world, like temperature, lighting, motion, and more.
The smartphone sensors we hear about most include the GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer, proximity sensor, and compass. By tapping into these and a few others, marketers have the opportunity to turn boring click-thru ads into interactive motion experiences.
Not sure what a motion ad is? Think miniature app or game. This is why motion ads are a perfect fit for mobile. If you look past email and texting, people spend a majority of their time on smartphones engaging with apps. So why not app-like ads?
Keeping it simple
Done right, a motion ad features a minimalistic design that blends into its surroundings. The whole idea is to keep the ad as simple and Zen-like as possible. That means no click-thrus to third-party websites. Everything happens in as few steps as possible right inside the ad.
A motion ad invites you to shake, tilt, or otherwise play with it. You might, for instance, tilt your phone to pour a cup of coffee or shake the phone to create a raspberry milkshake. The ad then rewards you with a digital coupon and points you to the nearest brick-and-motor store, where you can redeem that coupon.
Taking motion advertising a few steps further is virtual reality. No headsets are required. The phone itself becomes your VR viewing device, tracking your velocity and position and allowing you to explore the artificial landscape. That landscape may be a resort in the Bahamas or the new car you want to buy — only you’re in the driver’s seat.
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Not without challenges
Of course, designing a successful motion ad comes with its own set of challenges. So the experience remains natural, the ad has to respond to user feedback in real-time. Maintaining that fluid interaction requires sophisticated machine learning algorithms to coordinate sensor data.
You also want a responsive design that adapts to varying screen sizes, aspect ratios, and orientations. Avoid resource-intensive platform-specific APIs. Instead, go for cross-platform apps created in open source languages (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) and presented as WebViews.
Ad designs should be repeatable. Rather than spending heaps of time and money developing motion ads from scratch, look for a vendor like San Diego-based Adtile Technologies that offers programmatic motion ads. This way, you can focus on the storytelling while someone else handles the technical heavy lifting.
Finally, motion ads need to be more than just another cute online experience. By making use of location-based services, you can point the consumer to a nearby store where they can buy the product you’re advertising. Or else link your offers to Google Wallet and Apple Passport to make the buying process as seamless and easy as possible.
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Banner ads are so yesterday. They get in the way, and people don’t like them. Mobile is the new media, and new media requires a new way of doing things.
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